Opposition has emerged from within the National Conference over the prospects of the Biosafety Bill, which is presently awaiting Presidential endorsement to become law.
The Science, Technology and Development Committee of the confab in its report presented to the floor had on Page 34 urged President Goodluck Jonathan to speedily act on the proposal.
Bassey
But a member of the Environment Committee, Nnimmo Bassey, says the Science, Technology and Development Committee’s call should not be accepted. According to him, the bill, as drafted, is pro-industry and does not adequately protect the people and biodiversity.
Bassey, Director at Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), states: “The Biosafety Bill has no provisions for strict liability and redress. The fundamental flaws of HB.184 are that it
does not mention the issue of liability and redress; does not contain meaningful provisions ensuring effective public participation; does not take into account the precautionary principle; and, contains inconsistent language to an extent not acceptable.”
He points out that, before endorsement, the Biosafety Bill should include strict liability and have sanctions for pollution by genetically engineered products. He adds that polluters should be liable to a fine of not less than N100 million for corporate bodies and their directors committed to no less than five years imprisonment or both.
“With regard to redress, the polluter should be subject to the same penalties as above, but in addition should be held responsible for the restoration of polluted or contaminated environments and should make adequate compensation for the victims,” he stresses, adding that protection of biodiversity is cardinal, but modern biotechnology erodes biodiversity.
“Nigeria is party to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and one of its key pillars is the Precautionary Principle. This principle as the name implies calls for caution when there is doubt. Nigeria should not go the way of allowing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
“We do not need a National Biodiversity Conservation Authority as proposed by the committee. There are sufficient departments in the Ministry of Environment to handle the expected duties. The proper ministry to handle Biosafety issues is the Federal Ministry of Environment and should not be moved to the Ministry of Science. Biosafety issues are mostly about environmental issues.”
Bassey’s other comments on Science, Technology and Development include: “On page 16 at item (f) the Committee described products of our educational system as academically unsound and morally bankrupt. Although this is not a recommendation, the characterisation is objectionable.
“On page 18, item 1.5j – exposure to science and technology should be extended to primary schools and not just adult education classes.
“On Page 32, item 3.19(ii) – the Committee asks for “adequate funding” for nuclear technology. With the Fukushima nuclear accident and considering the poor state of our power generation structures, Nigeria should invest more in renewable power generation rather than investing in a technology that countries like Germany are moving away from.”
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has expressed reservations about remarks credited to the new chief executive officer of Shell, Ben Van Beurden, to the effect that the company is set to implement the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) assessment of Ogoniland.
Beurden
Van Beurden, who is currently on a visit to Nigeria, disclosed that he would toe a different approach to responding to community demands compared with his predecesors on the heels of criticisms the company received at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in The Hague late last month for failing to clean up spills in Ogoniland three years after the UNEP recommendation were made.
But, in a statement issued in Lagos, ERA/FoEN said that Shell’s pledge to clean up the Ogoni environment is part of the company’s charade to buy time while actually doing nothing.
ERA/ FoEN Executive Director, Godwin Ojo, said: “The sweet remarks of Shell’s CEO is nothing new. It is the usual rhetoric of systematic delay, feigning compliance while doing nothing to undo the environmental terrorism and ecocide it has wrought in Ogoniland”
Ojo
“Unless there is hard evidence, Shell cannot be trusted by mere promises. We doubt that Shell will now put on a new garb hence challenge the company to show more transparency and accountability by disclosing the funds it claimed it has set aside for the implementation of the UNEP recommendations.
Fifty years of baskets of unfulfilled promises makes us circumspect. We suspect that this is another basket full of lies given that the UNEP report was released three years ago and virtually no commitment has been made during this period. All that Shell has done is kicking and screaming against the report.”
Ojo pointed out that the unholy romance between some top government officials and Shell officials was responsible for the lack lustre approach of the government to compelling the company to embarking on cleanups and remediation of the environment, even as he added that, ” the government setting up of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) was and still remains a ploy to not implement the report”
ERA/FoEN demands an end to this grand deception which has pushed the Ogoni people to the fringes of existence. Shell must promptly comply with the UNEP recommendations. Mere talk is unacceptable,” Ojo insisted.
Connected Development (CODE), in collaboration with the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change (AYICC), last week engaged in tree planting and sensitisation in local nursery and primary school and held round table discussions on climate change mitigation to commemorate the 2014 World Environment Day (WED) in Abuja, Nigeria.
The event, tagged “Tree Planting exercise, sensitisation and round table discussions on Climate Change in Nigeria,” rallied around taking actions and engaging pupils of Abuja Children’s Home Nursery & Primary School on the importance of tree planting, its social and economic benefit to combat global warming and to the global mitigation efforts with local actions.
Hamzat Lawal, the Chief Executive of CODE, educated pupils and teachers of the school on how current life style contributes to global warming, leading to change in weather pattern, heavy rain fall, and improper disposal of waste which contributes to flooding and affects students to access timely education in affected communities.
“Today’s tree planting exercise is also to show our support to the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as a way of raising our collective voices and not the sea level,” Hamzat said.
Maria Yepwi, Head Mistress of the school, commend the organisers while stressing the need for more tress to be planted and commitment to ensuring that the planted trees are properly nurtured and for the organisers to visit other public schools.
John Sanni, a pupil of the school, said he never knew his actions could contribute to climate change and promised to tell his friends in other schools to plant trees for the planet.
The Nigerian Youth Round Table Discussion on Climate Change was geared towards taking stock on climate change advocacy/actions by young people. “Youth should be mainstream into the process, because the impact of climate change will be more on the younger generations, it is important to make sure that climate change information gets to the grassroots to enable the young people know what it’s all about and, through those interactions, more young people will get involved in climate change mitigation,” stated Lawal.
Participants underlined for the need for young people to synergise and work together to ensure that their advocacy efforts are taken to the next level with concrete actions. They also stressed need to hold governments accountable for its actions, while calling on the Federal Government to sign the Climate Change Bill which, according to them, will enable a dedicated institution that will handle climate change issues with a strong legal framework.
The CODE is a non-government organisation whose mission is to improve access to information and empower local communities in Africa. It seeks to strengthen local communities by creating platforms for dialogue, enabling informed debate, and building capacities of marginalised communities towards bringing about social and economic progress within communities, while promoting transparency and accountability.
The AYICC is an umbrella initiative of all youth organisations in Africa working on climate change issues. Currently, it has a membership of over 200 youth organisations with over 25,000 individuals and chapters in 42 Africa countries. AYICC’s vision is to create an African continent with an empowered and united youth movement, proactively involved in the decision making process and the adoption of sustainable options towards a better climate and social equity.
For the umpteenth time on Saturday, May 31, 2014, residents of Okun Alfa Community by the Alpha Beach along the Lagos coastline on the Lekki Peninsula, Eti-Osa Local Council, were inundated by flood waters from the Atlantic Ocean. The water intruded into their homes and businesses, rendering some homeless and stranded.
A flooded street at the Okun Alfa community
Flooding has always been a challenge faced by Lagos State but it seems to have become more intense in recent years. Many attribute its intensity to rising sea level caused by melting ice sheets in the polar regions, but another school of thought believes the situation in Lagos is worsened by the Eko Atlantic City Project, which has faced local and international criticisms.
The recent flooding at Okun Alfa was quite significant as the thigh-level water consumed about 95 percent of houses on Baale Street. Human waste sipped out and mixed with the flood water, even as animals scampered for safety.
Residents who could afford to move packed out hurriedly, while the poor ones looked on helplessly with anger and frustration written all over their faces.
I am a regular visitor to the community whenever such incident happened but, this time around, they seemed tired of granting interviews and sharing their pains as they believed nothing would come out of it. Many children slept on platforms elevated above the flood and I shuddered to think of the health implication if anyone of them accidentally fell into the heavily polluted water.
The community used to host the once popular Alpha Beach that attracted fun seekers and tourists at weekends, public holidays and festive periods. But this tourist destination has lost its attraction, no thanks to increasing sea level rise and a devastating shoreline erosion.
Community leader, Alhaji Yusuf Atelewora, said the neighborhood has witnessed increased shoreline erosion in the last four years and that all promises made by both federal and state governments were yet to be fulfilled.
“Many government officials have been to Okun Alfa, but all we hear are promises of this and that but our condition is not any better. Do you know even President Goodluck Jonathan came here? We were happy when he visited. But years after nothing tangible has been done. From my own side, I can tell you that since sand filling increased around the Bar Beach area (an apparent reference to the Eko Atlantic City land reclamation scheme), erosion has also increased on our shoreline. I pray one day we don’t wake up inside the sea,” he lamented.
Consequent upon the Due to the erosion, electrical poles are no longer standing and the only health centre in the community is in ruins. The community is in complete darkness even as underground water is contaminated.
According the Dr. Chubuike Wokocha from the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State, many coastal towns and communities may no longer be in existence in 10 years’ time due to increasing sea level rise as a result of climate change.
Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment, Tunji Bello, said efforts to reduce shoreline erosion in Okun Alfa is capital intensive and the state would require support from the Federal Government. He added that the state government has been working to ensure that the impact on communities like Okun Alfa is reduced and plans were on to re-align the drainage of the community backwards toward the Lagos Lagoon.
The Fifth Assessment Report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change IPPC report state the following: “Due to sea-level rise projected throughout the 21st century and beyond, coastal systems and low-lying areas will increasingly experience adverse impacts such as submergence, coastal flooding, and coastal erosion (very high confidence). The population and assets projected to be exposed to coastal risks as well as human pressures on coastal ecosystems will increase significantly in the coming decades due to population growth, economic development, and urbanisation (high confidence).
“The relative costs of coastal adaptation vary strongly among and within regions and countries for the 21st century. Some low-lying developing countries and small island states are expected to face very high impacts that, in some cases, could have associated damage and adaptation costs of several percentage points of GDP.”
With such a damming report from the IPPC, Okun Alfa community needs government’s prompt intervention as an epidemic looms due to the pathetic sanitary conditions there. A thought for those poor, helpless children.
Ministerial aide, Ben Goomg, in this treatise sets an agenda for the Environment Minister
Mallam
As Environment Minister, Mrs. Laurentia Mallam, intensifies her familiarisation tour of formations under her ministry, expectations are high that the new minister will take concrete steps to address the daunting challenges facing the ministry and the Nigerian environment.
Critical issues requiring urgent ministerial attention range from corruption in the system, lack of office accommodation, poorly-motivated workforce and dilapidated office furniture whose life span have long expired and are now an eye sore all over the ministry.
The most fundamental challenges in the sector have to do with the huge debts of over N10 billion hanging on the neck of the ministry; the oil spillage in the Niger Delta and particularly in Bonga which has affected shoreline communities in Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa among others; the massive erosion threating the entire South Eas;t and the lead poison in Zamfara yet to be comprehensively tackled.
Other problems have to do with draught and desertification threating the extreme end of Northern Nigeria, poor implementation of the Great Green Wall project, and challenges facing the National Parks. Of equal importance is the issue of flooding in parts of the country occasioned by the consequences of climate change as well as issues of pollution control and waste management, environmental health. Gas flaring must be stopped at all cost, with no shift in date.
At the centre of all of these is poor funding of the sector and low internally generated revenue. It is worthy of note that Mrs. Mallam herself has already acknowledged the fact of poor funding when she lamented that the ministry has just N7 billion for its entire budgetary allocation for the year 2014.
The time for Mallam to start the fight for the 2015 budget for key projects in the sector is now. While processing for more funds in next year’s budget, Mallam must also press hard to get the Federal Government to meet her obligation for the counterpart funding of the Great Green Wall and other projects. Luckily, the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Namandi Sambo, who is also the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on the Great Green Wall, is from the same state with the minister and is likely to support this noble effort. The connection is complete and Mallam has no excuse to fail except she chooses to be complacent. Mallam cannot afford to be complacent; she can utilise the window on supplementary budget to get more funds.
While pressing full throttle for funding, the minister should also learn from the mistakes of her predecessors who lost most of the plants they planted under the Great Green Wall project to drought and desertification. These plants died out because there was no maintenance agreement or arrangements which government would have secured with the various contractors handling the planting for at least two years to ensure that the trees are nurtured sufficiently to maturity level before being handed over to the ministry.
It is also important for the minister to embark on adequate sensitisation programme for host communities who should also be availed enough tree seedlings to plant. The host communities should be made to own the Great Green Wall Project. Taking ownership is the best way to guarantee rapid planting, and maintenance of the expected forests that will spring out of the project. Other less endowed countries such as Mauritania and Mali have succeeded in this project. Why can’t the giant, Nigeria?
Another area of grave concern which no Minister of Environment has ever confronted head-long is the issue of gas flaring. The starting point for Mallam is to visit the Niger Delta area and specifically oil installations and production facilities to see for herself the mount of gas being flared into the atmosphere. This will enable her appreciate fully the environmental consequences of these activities. Can Mallam press the necessary buttons to stop gas flaring to save the Nigerian environment or will she simply fall in line the same way her predecessors did to allow gas flaring to continue? Time and Mallam will tell.
The next challenge for Mallam is the consistent and monumental oil spillage that has ravaged host communities of the Niger Delta. The most recent is that of the Bonga Oil Spillage. Yes, the minister started well by attempting to bring warring stakeholders – Shell and host communities of the shoreline – to the table to seek amicable resolution of the problem. The minister has to pursue this to a logical conclusion.
Of equal importance is for the minister and oil companies operating in the Niger Delta to carry out sustained sanitisation campaign within the affected communities with a view to discourage people of host communities to avoid acts capable of causing oil spillage. If pipeline vandalisation is curbed, oil spillage can be minimised by 90 percent. The people must be made to know the environmental consequences of oil spillage on their lives, crops and health. Where oil spillage is occasioned by deliberate sabotage, culprits must be apprehended and brought to book, rather than being compensated. Where operating companies are responsible, prompt and adequate compensation must be paid to affected persons and communities.
Another area of worry is the issue of the embarrassing (N10.2 billion) debt profile hanging on the neck of the ministry. It is a known fact that some contractors have already obtained court judgments leading to attachment of the properties especially vehicles belonging to the ministry. Our advice in this regard is that the minister should engage the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to verify some of these contracts. Those found to be genuine should be paid promptly, while those found to be fraudulent should speedily be made to face prosecution.
Other environmental challenges that seem to generate massive headache for the country include erosion, flooding, pollution and the rapidly changing global climate. Mallam should engage all possible efforts in carrying out a comprehensive National Environmental Sensitisation progrmme to create the necessary environmental consciousness in the citizenry. Issues such as waste disposal, bush burning, vehicular emissions, radiation from refrigerators and related harmful ozone substances, industrial waste disposal, kerosene lanterns, deforestation and afforestation should all be part of the components of the National Environmental Campaign. The people must raise their voices and not the sea levels.
On the last line, environmental issues are better understood if one practically sees some of its devastating effects by oneself. The minister will do well by visiting sites such as the area affected by lead poison in Zanfara, the Bonga Oil Spillage areas of the Niger Delta, especially the shoreline communities and see for herself the exploitation activities of the oil companies and the gas flaring that goes on daily. Now that the raining season is here, Mallam should constantly visit the frontline states of the Great Green Wall and join the communities in at least symbolically planting trees. It will be to the credit of the minister to say that, out of the estimated 1,500km to be covered by the project, she alone has planted a 1000km during her tenure.
Arise Mallam, and give Nigerians a clean, conducive and healthy environment
Pa Ousman Jarju, Minister of Environment of Gambia, and former chair and special envoy on climate change for the 48 Least Developed Countries, writes an open letter to US President Barack Obama
Pa Ousman Jarju
Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Water Resources, Parks and Wildlife
GIEPA House
Kairaba Avenue
The Gambia
Dear President Obama:
As former chair of Least Developed Countries group in the United Nations climate change negotiations, and former Special Envoy for the group, I am speaking on behalf of LDCs who are already suffering from the devastating impacts of climate change.
The latest IPCC report indicates that the evidence of human-caused climate-change impacts is unequivocal, and that increased warming likewise increases the likelihood of severe, pervasive, and irreversible impacts.
The research shows that these increases in temperature will be linked to increases in the level and the extent of poverty around the world, making more difficult our recovery from climate-related disasters. Both will set back decades of human development efforts and create new security risks for the world.
Mr. President, the long-term consequences on our countries will be devastating. The LDCs are already experiencing debilitating impacts on our agriculture, water supply, and floodplains.
Since 1980, more than one half of the deaths from climate-related disasters have occurred in our nations. However, the overall contribution to climate change by all the LDCs, constituting 12 per cent of the world’s population, is less than 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
These asymmetrical impacts call for LDC priorities to be at the centre of current decisions and actions. As the poorest and most vulnerable to climate change, we are seeing the impacts first hand.
Mr. President, we welcome your initiative on climate change gases in coal-fired power plants announced this week: this action was overdue, and it is an important step in bringing the U.S. closer to the actions of the rest of the world, including those of developed and many developing countries.
The scale of the problem requires such bold and sustained action. Mr. President, we request that you accept UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s invitation to the special Climate Summit in New York on 23rd September and engage proactively in the process. Your presence and bold pledges for further actions will not only demonstrate that the U.S. is taking climate change seriously, but it would set an example for other leaders around the world.
One of the reasons behind the failure to achieve success in Copenhagen in 2009 was that presidents and prime ministers only engaged at the last minute.
This time, success by climate change negotiators in Lima in 2014 and Paris in 2015 will ultimately depend on presidents and prime ministers engaging early, by coming with high level political commitments to New York in September and directing their negotiators to work out the details.
2014 is the year of ambition on climate change: the twentieth Conference of the Parties in Lima is the penultimate COP before the adoption of 2015 Agreement. Mr. President your legacy to the US and the rest of the world will be marked by the level of commitment you show in the next months.
Sincerely,
Pa Ousman Jarju
Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Water Resources, Parks and Wildlife
The Gambia
The Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) has urged the National Assembly to fast-track work on the repackaged National Tobacco Control Bill. The NTCA Alliance Manager, Gbenga Adejuwon, made the submission in Lagos on Tuesday at a session to mark the 2014 World Tobacco Day (WTD).
The WTD 2014 has “Raise Tobacco Taxes” as its theme.
Adejuwon commended the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for heeding the cries of Nigerians expressed in the mass media and a recent poll that confirmed that nine out of every 10 Nigerians sampled demand tough legislation to stop the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) and other tobacco transnationals gambling with the lives of living Nigerians and those yet unborn.
Emphasising that the time to raise taxes on tobacco is now, Adejuwon said: “This global commemoration is one we feel we can use to re-echo our demands for heavy taxes that will discourage potential smokers and push the burden of tobacco health borne by our government at state and national levels back to the tobacco companies.”
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco epidemic kills nearly six million people each year, of which more than 600,000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke. It further says that the epidemic will kill more than eight million people every year by 2030. More than 80 percent of these preventable deaths will be among people living in low- and middle-income countries like Nigeria, adds the global body.
Adejuwon described the recommendation on increasing taxes as a key endorsement of a WHO research, which confirmed that higher taxes are especially effective in reducing tobacco use among lower-income groups and in preventing young people from starting to smoke.
“A tax increase that jerks up tobacco prices by 10 percent decreases tobacco consumption by about four percent in high-income countries and by up to eight percent in most low- and middle-income countries,” he stated, adding that increasing excise taxes on tobacco is considered to be the most cost-effective tobacco control measure.
A recent WHO report also indicated that a 50 percent increase in tobacco excise taxes would generate a little more than $1.4 billion in additional funds in 22 low-income countries. It added that, if allocated to health, government health spending in these countries could increase by up to 50 percent.
“We strongly believe that the Nigerian government will be contributing to protecting present and future generations not only from the devastating health consequences due to tobacco, but also from the social, environmental and economic scourges of exposure to tobacco smoke by increasing taxes on tobacco products and then channeling generated funds into treating patients of tobacco-induced illnesses and other illnesses that currently lack adequate funding,” submitted Adejuwon.
A woman stands helplessly beside her roofless home after a rainstorm in Lagos
In 2012, Nigeria experienced remarkable floods that affected over 7.7 million people, causing the worlds’s second largest disaster-induced displacement event of the year.
The floods, which ravaged 3,850 communities across 256 Local Government Areas in 34 states out of the 36 states of the federation, inundated farmlands, destroyed over 618 houses and caused large damages to schools, health care centres, leaving about 2.1 million people internally displaced and causing 363 fatalities.
On 12 of February, 2012 in Lagos, a wind of terror with an estimated wind speed of 75km to 100km swept though the state, causing great havoc to infrastructures and human population. These somewhat extreme weather events resulted in multiple disasters for which the extent and magnitude of losses and damages are yet to be quantified.
The above scenario are some of the several painted by a coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the draft Lagos Climate Disaster Analysis Report, which came under scrutiny recently by stakeholders.
Operating under the aegis of the Policy Advocacy Project Partnership on Climate Change in Lagos (PAPPCC), the groups pointed out that though the disasters may not be evidence of climate change but can nonetheless provide an indication of what the future potentially holds for a changing climate in Lagos (and other parts of the country). They predicted that impacts of climate change would pose significant threat to economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security and political security, which the state seems to lack adequate capacity to handle.
At a daylong validation workshop, participants attempted a review of the document, which features sections such as Background/Introduction; Climate Change and Disasters in Lagos State – An Overview; Transportation; Analysis of the Effect of Climate Change on Water Supply in Lagos State; Gender, Social Inclusion & Climate-induced Disasters; Climate Disasters & Infrastructural Development; Education; Preliminary Baseline Analysis of the Impact of Climate Change on Health & Economy: Lagos State in Focus; Analysis of the Effect of Climate Change on Agriculture in Lagos State; and Policy Recommendations.
On agriculture for instance, the report emphasised that variability in weather patterns including increase in rainfall, cessation of rainfall, and unpredictability of rainfall onset dates/season and cessation dates have disrupted the timing of farming operations for farmers in Lagos State like elsewhere in Nigeria, thereby reducing farming productivity.
The variability, it added, has caused confusion about the best time to plant or harvest crops, leading to reduction in cropping season, low germination, poor yield and crop failure, early or late harvest, with negative impact on the substance of farmers.
Unexpected increase in rain has also been linked to flash flooding and destruction of crops; increased soil erosion; higher incidence of crop and animal pests and diseases and overall decrease in agricultural productivity. This, noted the report, poses a serious challenge to the farming population of the state who depend on rain-fed farming for their subsistence.
Such impacts will further aggravate the stresses already associated with subsistence production, such as isolated location, small farm size, informal land tenure, low levels of technology and narrow employment options; in addition to unpredictable and uneven exposure to world markets that smallholder farmers particularly risk-prone.
Reduction in agricultural productivity in the state will continue to increase it’s dependence on other states and countries for its food security as well as increase the poverty level of the state’s rural dwellers, majority of who get their livelihood from farming, animal rearing, fishing or processing of agricultural products for sale.
Some of the CSOs involved in the initiative include: Community Conservation & Development Initiatives (CCDI), Centre for 21st Century Issues (C21st), Network on Water & Sanitation (NEWSAN), Development Initiative Network (DIN) and West African Network for Peace Building (WANEP).
Applause and knocks last week greeted the report of the Committee on Environment when it was presented to the plenary session of the on-going National Conference in Abuja.
In particular, the committee’s recommendations demanding the removal of the Land Use Act from the 1999 Constitution and the establishment of a special court to deal with environmental issues received mixed reactions from various delegates, depending on which tribal grouping they belong.
Retired Justice Abdullahi Mustapha said it was appalling to realise that every agency of government wants establishment of special courts to handle its issues. He was of the opinion that existing courts have the capability to handle such issues if reformed and properly situated.
During the clause-by-clause consideration of the report and its recommendations, this suggestion was voted out.
Another recommendation that was hailed by some and condemned by others was the suggestion for resource democracy which it described as the right by the people to own and manage their resources by prospecting for and developing such resources in their territories.
This recommendation, in spite of the knocks it received from a section of the delegates, was retained by the Committee of the Whole during consideration of recommendations, through a voice vote.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, had while presenting the report said every decision arrived at was exhaustively researched and debated while experts in various areas of environment-related disciplines were invited for professional inputs and suggestions.
All the same, some of the delegates found faults in areas covered by the committee while others, like Ledum Mitee from Rivers State, pointed out factual errors and inconclusive analysis in specific areas.
Chief Edwin Clark, who turned 87 recently, said there was nothing new about most of the recommendations of the committee; explaining that what was lacking was the political will on the part of the leaders to accept suggestions and have them implemented.
He said: “We in the riverine areas, live on top of water but we have no water to drink. We cannot farm. We cannot do fishing. The vegetation has changed,” adding that pipelines that were laid in 1956 have grown old but remain unchanged.
The committee had in its analysis pointed out that climate change has already led to serious desertification in northern Nigeria, affecting at least 11 states with the serious implication of dislocation of populations and livelihoods.
It observed that southward migration of pastoralists in search of grazing grounds could well be one of the key factors leading to conflicts with farmers in other areas.
It recommend dedicated actions to save Lake Chad from complete disappearance while forest reserves should be established, protected and properly maintained by the both the federal and state governments.
The committee stated the need for government to encourage communities to imbibe the culture of tree planting, strict regulation and enforcement of logging activities and creation and proper funding of a reforestation and a forestation agency to handle all anti-desertification projects.
Dr Isaac Osuoka in his comments said the issue of desertification should be treated as an issue of national emergency so that the situation could be arrested before it gets out of hand.
Describing gas flaring as the most intractable of the petroleum industry related pollution, the committee said its stoppage has continued to remain elusive despite numerous attempts at regulation.
Ranked seventh in the world in terms of proven natural gas reserves, the committee reported that, apart from Russia, Nigeria flares more gas than any country of the world with 80% of the associated gas produced from Nigeria’s oil fields being flared.
The environmental impacts of this include increase in concentration of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere; negative effect on vegetation, livestock and aquatic lives in the vicinity of the flares, among others.
The committee recommended amendment of the Gas Re-Injection Act of 1979 and remove the provision that empowers the minister to authorise flaring of gas by oil companies; and that stiffer sanctions including fines equivalent to commercial price of natural gas should be imposed, while heads of offending agencies should be held responsible.
However, Mitee and Aishatu Isma’il faulted the recommendation in the sense that the committee failed to make gas flaring a crime in spite of its huge negative impact on the environment and humans.
Conference in session agreed that penalty for gas flaring should be paid to the affected communities and not to the Federal Government as has been the practice.
Oil spillage was another area of environmental pollution examined by the committee with a report that, to date, more than 5000 oil pipelines spill incidents have been reported in Nigeria with large areas of dry land, wetland and water bodies permanently impacted.
It cited a study carried out by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) stating that it would take a life-time for abandoned oil sites in Ogoni land to be cleaned up, a citation that was faulted by Mitee who said the report put the time frame at between 25 to 30 years and not a lifetime as reported.
However, the Conference resolved that Federal Government should, as a matter of national urgency, start implementation of UNEP report on Ogoni environmental problems without further delay.
Delegates also decided that a special agency be established by the Federal Government for the clean-up of the Niger Delta, particularly areas identified by international environmental bodies as badly affected by oil spills.
It suggested that the Act establishing the Nigerian Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NASREA) should be amended to give it oversight over the entire environment including the oil and gas sector since, as presently operational, NASREA does not regulate the oil and gas sector.
In its recommendations, the committee stated that the vital need to preserve the integrity of the Nigerian environment and thus secure its sustainability for present and future generations requires clear and direct stipulations in the Nigerian Constitution.
It said, “As a people living very closely to and depending for livelihoods on nature, we should enshrine the rights of nature to maintain its natural cycles without disruption in our constitution.”
It stated further that although environment is fundamental to human existence, the 1999 Constitution made only a passing reference to the environment and environmental rights at its Section 20.
It recommended that for Nigerians to secure the environment and related rights, “this has to be placed among the fundamental rights section of the constitution and made fully justiciable.” The recommendation was upheld by the Conference.
It suggested that the power to legislate should without any ambiguity be given to the federating units; “the administration of the environment should be in the Concurrent List in the constitution,” since the constitution has not located the environment at all in its fiscal schedules.
Professor Obiora Ike in his contribution said the committee’s report was silent on the need to make education on environmental issues compulsory from the primary level; and that the committee was also silent on noise pollution.
Ambassador Adamu Aliyu also faulted the report in this regard and proposed that environmental issues should be taught in schools so that the younger generations would grow up conscious of the ills that certain actions bring on the environment.
DR Patricia Ogbonnaya was of the view that environmental education remains the only way to “catch them young” and should henceforth be made a part of school curriculum.
Mitee said the committee should have made a recommendation on the noise and fumes generated by electricity generating sets owned by people in the city; and also decide what should be done to control ordinary non-degrading wastes like unused water sachets and plastic and polythene containers. His suggestion was adopted by the Conference.
During consideration of report by the Committee of the Whole, the need for legislation on noise pollution and fumes from power generating sets and vehicles plying the roads were upheld and adopted.
It was also decided and adopted that agencies in environment sector should produce integrated information data on environment issues in the country to help in policy formulation and implementation.
The Conference also decided that henceforth, the Ecological Fund Office should be moved from the Presidency to the Federal Ministry of Environment and must ensure that the Fund is specifically used to address ecological problems.
It was agreed that communities within the National Park areas across the country are to be resettled in line with the laws establishing the parks.
In a bid to control flood and its devastating effect on humans and livelihood, Conference agreed that two new dams be built in the lower end of River Niger; and that flooding be declared as annual natural disaster in the areas they are likely to occur.
Makoko is a metaphor for resilience in the face of enormous pressures. This community floating on the waters of the Lagos Lagoon is resilient because it is not a rigid community. It is resilient not because the buildings in this community are the strongest in the world but because they are built in sync with nature and not against her. Her resilience is seen in the young boys and girls who ferry us in the boat taxis in order to make enough cash to pay their daily school fees and so access a measure of education.
The intense pressure the communities that make up Makoko have had to confront is best told by the people themselves and not by observers. However, beyond their voices and cries observers are able to see the stumps that poke above the waters of the Lagoon in silent testimony to brutal assaults and fires that seek to demolish, dislocate or erase the community.
Makoko is a community loaded with lessons that we can only deny to our peril. Makoko is a laboratory of life. It is a community of possibilities. Makoko gives hope. It also raises challenges. This is why we have chosen to assembly for our dialogue in this structure. In this series of HOMEF’s Sustainability Academy, we are interrogating the evident conflicts and turmoil manifesting across the world. We have looked at armed insurgency, economic violence and ecological assaults. We will continue with this at this final lap. Two additional dimensions here will be those conflicts generated by, and expected from, global warming and those generated by forces of disaster capitalism.
Makoko as a community sitting on water is prone to the impacts of sea level rise that could be triggered by intense rains or by global warming. Flooding is a challenge to Lagos, any day and the state pays a lot of attention to building resilience and also mitigating the impacts. However, Makoko teases the sea by sitting on it. The Floating School in which this session is being held speaks volumes about how to face sea level rise and deflect its sting. The School is designed and built to float. This means that if the sea rises, the building itself rises. This school is designed and built with in line with the rhythms of nature and not in defiance of nature like Eko Atlantic does, for instance. The Floating School and the entire Makoko communities show us what resilience means.
Capitalism has entered the cannibal stage where it feeds more blatantly on disaster. Not content on accumulation by dispossession, when disasters happen today they are seen as opportunities to displace citizens from their ancestral abodes and not as emergency calls to help the victims to overcome their plight. Thus, if a fire breaks out in a community such as Makoko, those who see the location as prime property, would wish to pour fuel on the fire rather than fight to quench it. This displacement for acquisition trend is not restricted to Makoko, but is a common challenge that shoreline communities are facing from desperate speculators.
The world acknowledges that global warming is real, and that dependency on fossil fuels is a critical contributor to the menace. Yet there is no desire to shift away from the bad habit that is sure to bring on catastrophic global warming. The allure of the fossil dependency is not just in the fact that they make energy much easily available than other energy forms. More importantly, the attraction comes from the fact that fossil fuels are extracted without responsibility, or care for the environment, and that they are money-spinners for governments, oil and other hydrocarbon companies and provide the necessary power for rampaging war machines.
While Makoko is an affront to those who desire her beautiful location, she is a great inspiration for those who believe that progress can only be progress if it is in line with the desires of the people and generally supports life. The Floating School is a concept we believe should be replicated in all communities on the coastline of Nigeria and elsewhere.
As we round up this third session of our third Sustainability Academy we will continue to look at Turmoil in Africa and ask if these constitute Uprisings or whether we are seeing a descent into Chaos. Before we introduce our Instigator for this session, HOMEF would reiterate our key calls relative to the issues we have been interrogating as follows:
African leaders must ensure that the continent gets out of the trap of being the arena for proxy wars by interests inimical to the well being of our environment and peoples
Ecological warfare must not be a tool in the war against terror. In this regard HOMEF endorses the demand: #BringBackOurGirls and adds that they must be brought back to a secure environment devoid of stigmatisation and exploitation in any guise including exploitation as child brides.
Nigerian and African leaders must protect our environment and peoples from the activities of rampaging resource extractors, ensure that environmental costs do not continue to be externalised to the people/environment and that ecological crimes are severely sanctioned
African governments must be primarily responsible and accountable to our peoples rather than to international financial institutions and to multinational corporations
The Nigerian government should scrap the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) and replace it with a National Environmental Restoration Agency (NERA) under the Federal Ministry of Environment, with a mandate to clean up the Nigerian environment including in particular the Ogoni environment as demanded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report issued three years ago
The Makoko Floating School model should be adopted and replicated across all coastal communities by the Nigerian government as a climate change adaptation measure and to teach the lesson that our architecture must support our ways of life and be in sync with the rhythms of nature
The Nigerian and Lagos State governments should commit to upgrade the Makoko communities and provide support for the communities including by providing adequate health, educational and other services. The community should also be protected from property and financial speculators as well as from other disaster capitalists.
By Nnimmo Bassey (Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation – HOMEF)
